Nearly one in four marriages, 23 per cent, carried out in Ireland in 2007 were civil ceremonies, new CSO data have revealed. The figure is being driven up by divorce and a decline in religious observance. A third of civil marriages involved at least one divorced person. However, the civil marriage rate is still much...
Almost 40 percent of nine month old babies are looked after by someone other than their parents for some part of the working day, new data from the ‘Growing Up in Ireland’ study reveals. ‘Growing up in Ireland’ is a longitudinal study of children in Ireland. It shows that of the 38 percent of babies...
The world cannot afford “religious illiteracy”, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said. Writing in the Washington Post, Mr Blair, who heads up the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which promotes the role of faith in global affairs, said that faith was becoming an increasing force in the world. He said: “No one today, aspiring...
The State could be in breach of human rights by not providing children whose parents do not want them to learn a religion with a viable alternative, a conference has been told. One reason for this, the paper says, is that the ethos of a denominational school can permeate the whole school meaning it is...
It has emerged that a boy who was raised as a girl by his parents at the urging of an academic eventually ended up in a deep depression and committed suicide. The traumatic events were broadcast in a BBC documentary which revealed that the troubling case had been falsely hailed as a “success” in academic...
People whose parents divorced are twice as likely to experience a stroke in adulthood, according to new Canadian research. Based on a study of more than 13,000 adults living in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the research has found that those whose parents divorced when they were children had twice the odds of having a stroke at...
Families last year saw a fall in household income of €4,000 and new figures show a big rise in the number of cash-strapped families who are now unable to meet basic household bills. The average gross family income fell from €60,581 in 2008 to €56,522 in 2009, according to new figures released by the Central...
Canada’s law against polygamy is being challenged by the leaders of a radical religious sect in the province of British Columbia. The case focuses on a break-away Mormon sect alleged to practice “plural marriage” and is the latest in a series of attacks in Western countries on monogamous, heterosexual marriage. Authorities have asked the court...
The Government’s four year budget plan will penalise one-income married people compared with single people to the tune of hundreds of euro per annum. According to the Government’s National Recovery Plan, by 2014 the net pay for a married one-income family on €55,000 “will be reduced by €2,310 per annum (€44 per week) or 5.4...
A secular worldview that tries to push religion out of public life is at best naive and could even be tyrannous, former Taoiseach John Bruton said in a speech in the House of Lords last night. His speech was similar to one delivered in November last year at an event hosted by The Iona Institute...
